After rejecting one tentative pact, 5,300 workers at Ingalls
Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, ms, represented by the Metal Trades Council,
ratified a 3-year agreement, retroactive to February 4, 1990. (A job
action was averted following the contract rejection only after the
AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department refused to authorize a work stoppage.)
Ingalls Shipbuilding, a division of Litton Systems, Inc., is a major
U.S. Navy shipbuilding contractor.

The contract calls for a 60-cent-per-hour wage increase in 1990,
and 30 cents an hour in both 1991 and 1992. Some minor changes were made
in insurance benefits, including increases in coverage for maternity and
outpatient treatment. Also, the employees' monthly insurance
copayment was increased $5 in each of the 3 years (previously, $20). The
health plan is self-insured by Ingalls, whose monthly contribution under
the old plan was $238 per employee. In addition, the two-tier wage
system was continued, but rates for new hires will now be $1 less than
the entry rate that had applied to workers on the higher tier (the
new-hire rate previously was $3 less than the higher tier entry rate).

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